Design services marketplace is latest and largest tech company to move across the bay

San Francisco, CA (March 25, to_timestamp(2015)) - 99designs, the largest global marketplace for graphic design, today announced plans to move its corporate headquarters from San Francisco to Oakland in spring 2015. Based in San Francisco for the past five years, 99designs will relocate to the historic Breuner’s building at 2201 Broadway in the burgeoning Uptown District of Oakland in order to accommodate the company’s accelerating growth.

99designs’ 14,000 square-foot office will be completely custom-renovated on the top floor of the building that was once Breuner’s flagship furniture store. Already home to other tech startups, the historic art-deco building features a penthouse roof deck, an ideal outdoor space for meetings. The move is expected to be completed in May 2015.

“The decision to move to Oakland was inspired by several factors, including our desire to be part of the city’s flourishing art, design and tech community. We think Oakland is a perfect location for us to access all the talent that resides in the broader East Bay area as we continue to recruit a broad range of talent to grow out our team,” said 99designs President and CEO Patrick Llewellyn. “We love the Uptown neighborhood in particular because of its proximity to public transportation and the variety of food, fitness and entertainment experiences. We think our employees will quickly become part of the fabric of the neighborhood.”

"Oakland's local economy and its businesses have long benefitted from encouraging innovation, creativity and growth of companies in a variety of areas. Most recently this has included the design and technology sectors," said Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf. "We're excited that 99designs is attracted to Oakland and recognizes the unique advantages of doing business here. I'm sure they will enhance our business environment - building community and the bottom line."

99designs has signed a five-year lease for 14,161 square-feet at 2201 Broadway with an option to assume the entire floor as space becomes available, giving it up to 26,000 square-feet of space on a single floor. The building is owned and managed by Metrovation. 99designs was represented by Jon Dishotsky of Custom Spaces and Mike Keely of CBRE and Metrovation was represented by Trent Holsman of Colliers International. Chris Curtis of Metrovation said, “We are very excited to be working with 99designs to create a truly unique tech space on the top floor of our historic building for their new headquarters. We are very pleased to welcome them to our building and to Oakland’s Uptown.”

Deborah Boyer, president, Lake Merritt/Uptown District Association said, "I’m delighted to welcome 99designs and its employees to the Uptown District, one of the best live/work/play neighborhoods in the Bay Area. The vibrancy of our eclectic Uptown community is continually enhanced by creative companies like 99designs drawn to locate here."

About 99designs

99designs, the world’s largest logo and graphic design marketplace, has helped over 380,000 businesses access quality design at an affordable price. 99designs pioneered crowd-sourced design contests, where businesses receive a wide variety of design concepts and choose their favorite, and expanded to provide services for customers to work 1-on-1 with individual designers, purchase design templates from the ready-made logo store, or get small design projects done within an hour through Tasks. With more than 990,000 designers from 192 countries around the world, 99designs’ suite of services helps businesses succeed through great design created by a robust community of talented graphic designers. 99designs is backed by Accel Partners.